EQAR NEWSLETTER - JULY 2018

News: Register Committtee decisions | New governmental member | Analysis of Register Committee Decisions | EQAR Annual Report 2017 | EQA activities of registered agencies| DEQAR Update | EQAR celebrates 10th anniversary | EQAF

Latest Register Committtee decisions

The Register Committee (RC) convened in Vaduz on 12-13 June, hosted by the Office of Education of Liechtenstein. The following agencies were newly admitted to the Register:

The RC also approved one renewal application:

See all QAAs listed on the Register

Italy becomes governmental member of EQAR

We are pleased to announce that Italy has become EQAR's newest governmental member. Since then (14 June) Italy has already provided a venue for one EQAR event: the DEQAR User Interface Workshop (see DEQAR update) which took place in Rome on the premises of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, hosted in cooperation with CIMEA.

We would like to warmly welcome Italy and look forward to our future cooperation. EQAR now counts 40 governmental members who are involved in the overall governance of EQAR.

More about governmental membership in EQAR

 

Analysis of Register Committee Decisions

Since the Register started its work in 2008, the Committee has considered a total of 100 applications (until the end of 2017), of which 66 applications of initial inclusion and 34 applications for renewal of registration.

The work of the Register Committee and the soundness of the application process has been closely analysed with a focus on applications that have been reviewed following the adoption of the ESG 2015. The analysis covers Part 2 and Part 3 of the ESG (those with direct relevance to quality assurance agencies) and illustrates which standards have revealed to be most challenging for applicant agencies. Further analysis is provided into the changes of registered agency’s activities, organisational structure, their mergers and complaints. 

Analysis of Register Committee decisions

EQAR Annual Report 2017

The year 2017 was a year of firsts and lasts: EQAR's first President, Karl Dittrich, was elected and the first steps were taken for setting up the Database for External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR). The EQAR office had its last days of residence in the Schuman area before moving to Place Luxembourg. It was also the first time that our longest serving Register Committee members, who had been there since the start in 2008, served their full term: Lucien Bollaert, Dáire Keogh and Dorte Kristoffersen. We also said goodbye to Eric Froment, Chair of the Register Committee since 2012 and to Júlio Pedrosa, Olav Øye and Josep Grifoll.

We invite you to read or download the annual report.

External QA activities of EQAR-registered agencies

For the past four years EQAR has been collecting information on the quality assurance activities carried out by registered quality assurance agencies. These activities show trends in the number of higher education institutions and programmes that have undergone a review in line with the ESG in the past years.

From the data collected in 2017 we learned that:

Concerning the cross-border external QA activities of registere agencies, the data shows that most activities are carried out in EHEA countries that recognise the activity of EQAR-registered agencies as part of the regular quality assurance at programme and/or institutional level (e.g. Kazakhstan, Belgium, Moldova, Austria, Romania, Cyprus, Germany, Switzerland, Lithuania). Nevertheless cross-border external QA also takes place in countries where such recognition does not exist (e.g. Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, France).

View our interactive maps and read more about EQAR-registered agencies' QA activities

DEQAR Update

The Database for External Quality Assurance Results project has moved from the conception phase into development, testing and launch. We present a short summary of its progress:

The next steps involve enhancing and refining the structure, scope and presentation of the database. At the same time registered agencies will be encouraged to upload more of their data so that in October 2018, the final refined user interface can be launched.

We would like to invite everyone to try out the database and to subsequently fill in our DEQAR user survey.

EQAR anniversary

EQAR is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Founded by the E4 (ENQA, EURASHE, ESU and EUA) in 2008, EQAR started off with 19 governmental members and 3 first agencies registered.

Much has happened since then. Many meetings, many decisions, many discussions, new registered agencies, new members, new committee members, new staff members at the Secretariat, new ESG. In short, a lot to look back on and also a lot to look forward to.

We celebrated this happy occasion in our new offices in the form of an anniversary reception for our Brussels-based members and partners, as well as during an official celebratory session organised at the Sorbonne in conjunction with the EHEA Ministerial Conference on 23-25 May in Paris.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all past and present members of the Register Committee, the Executive Board and the Appeals Committee for their dedication, hard work and commitment. A special thanks to the three former chairs of the Register Committee; Bryan McMahon, Kjell Frønsdal and Eric Froment.

EQAF - Call for Contributions and registration

The 2018 European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), which will take place on 15-17 November 2018 in Vienna, hosted by WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and AQ Austria.

EQAF is the largest annual gathering of the European higher education quality assurance (QA) community. This year’s Forum will explore how institutions and QA agencies can build QA systems that encompass a broad range of activities, including learning and teaching, research, governance and administration, and service to society.

Information about the Programme and registration are available on the EQAF website.
There is also an opportunity to contribute to the programme yourself by presenting a paper or delivering a workshop during the Forum. The call for contributions is open until 24 July 2018.

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